Marcus noticed as he handled the corpses, that the dead coyotes eyes were heavily bloodshot and that blood seemed to have flowed out of the ears of both coyotes he examined to that point. It seemed they had curled up and died, even though none sported wounds that appeared mortal.

Looking around the room he found mostly small scattered bones - rabbits and the like. There were moldy pads that had served as beds for the coyotes, and in one corner a metal baseball bat.

The fact that there were no other tracks than 'yotes could mean either three things that Carny could think of; whatever killed them doesn't leave tracks(and could possibly still be around 'ere), they encountered this danger elsewhere and came back ta die or lastly, disease.

"Better not touch the corpses, they mite be dat they're infected wit sumthin... Either that or sumthin strange killed em. Some of em don't even have any gunshot wounds, mite 'ave been bludgeoned ta death... Or a loud noise...bleeding outta their ears. Probably bled out internally."

Carnegie stood up, she didn't want to stay too close in case disease was behind their deaths.

"Let's keep on looking..." She said, and tried to find another route leading out of the gymnasium, further into the school.

The school had obviously been picked over in the past, but not completely empty. The warren of rooms and passages afforded many places to hide things, and so a truly thorough search would perhaps take days.

The gymnasium yielded a number of wooden baseball bats.

Lockers in the hallway yielded a couple of usable jackets, some size 6 (youth) shoes and a pair of baseball caps. Hundreds of moldy books are available as well.

The cafeteria yielded a half-dozen cans of various foodstuffs, and an array of metal pans. There is a pop machine.

Near a window on the second floor were four spent rifle casings and nearby that, a lunchbox with 30 caps inside.

If there is anything specific you would like to attempt to scavenge, apart from finished goods of course, please let me know.

Carnegie, while looking for a janitors room or the like, managed to find a heavy metal door set at the bottom of a short staircase down, leading below ground level. It appears to be locked or perhaps stuck.

(13:33:06) Minion: Shadoweagle rolls 1d20 and gets 15.With a swing of his wrench, Luc mashed the soda machine open. Six cans rolled out onto the floor, which he quickly scavenged. He also snatched a couple of the frypans for scrap metal.

Luc sidled up behind Carnegie as she found the door, still stuffing his bags with the cans he scavenged from the soda machine. "Ya wanna check it out in there, Carny?" he asked, his frustrations were beginning to fade with time, "I'll have to light another torch. Reckon we should head back to town soon, though! I wanna let the mayor know about these dead coyotes."

Carnegie was surprised to hear him address her directly again, though she welcomed it. Maybe there was no need for apologies, at least not now. They had both done wrong. "I'd hate ta leave like this, we still dunn know what killed 'em 'yotes. But I guess we cannae comb the whole place. Let's get Marcus and Anya, check out this last room n' call it a day, then." Together they climbed the stairs back up to find the others.

The small group assembled near the door apparently leading into the basement. The metal door appeared to be quite strong, and Marcus's attempt to pull it open was unsuccessful - it was clearly locked or very badly ceased.

No window pierced the door, and above it could be seen a mount point which likely once housed a camera. Now the metal bracket is twisted and careful search of the nearby debris turned up what might once have been a security camera before it was apparently smashed.

Even with Kreadle's assistance the door resisted the attempts at ripping it off, barely acknowledging their efforts. They could tell the door was being held closed at multiple points, so it was locked, not merely jammed. The frame that held it was covered by metal moulding as well.

"I ain't going to let a f**king door beat me!" Marcus snarled. "If we can't get in by opening tha door, I'll go at it from the sides."

He brandished his axe. "You people should probably back up," he said, before he started chopping his way in at the door frame. Pausing in his choppings for a moment, Marcus said, "and I could use a nice strong door like this as well, for if I build myself a house."

Sparks flew as his axe bit into the cinder block walls that held the door, at first small chunks of concrete began to fly.

Luc added to the din with his wrench, smashing at the concrete and sending chunks to the ground.

A few really load, dusty minutes later, the door's own weight played against the weakened fasteners and began to shift. Luc and Marcus stepped out of the way as the door crashed down, a thunderous boom punctuating its landing.

The entry to the basement yawned open.

An odd whirring sound started off low and began to rise in pitch, along with other mechanical noises as something began moving within.

A harsh, inhuman voice range out. "Intruders Identify!"

Whatever it was, was coming closer - several small red lights could be seen emerging from the darkness...

Time for one action each before initiative. Line of sight exists for Marcus and Luc. Anya and Kreadle are somewhat back. Post your pre-init action, and then your initiative roll.

Mortimer flipped his shield onto his arm, and holding it in a defensive position, charged, sprinting into the darkness, screaming a warcry, and when he got close enough to hit something, anything, he swung blindly with his axe.

when charging, I can move 100 feet per round, so I think I made it with enough time to take a swing at the thing.Attack roll: (14:44:48) Minion: caesar193 rolls 1d20 and gets 20. Oh, ya, get some, mechanical monster!Damage: (14:47:07) Minion: caesar193 rolls 1d8 and gets 4. So x3 for 12 damage I believeInitiative: (14:48:20) Minion: caesar193 rolls 1d20 and gets 2.

Luc swore and moved to get around the thing - whatever this thing was.

Marcus barrelled into the room and smashed his axe into the cylindrical _thing_.

His blade caught it full in the middle of its metal torso and sent sparks, fragments of metal and plastic flying.The machine whirred and sparked as it struggled to remain upright. Enough light was present to show it had several arms, one of which had some type of cylindrical device, another some type of cutter.

It was shortly thereafter that Carnegie's rifle boomed and the round ploughed into what passed for the robot's 'head', shattering more metal, glass and plastic. It limbs lashed out wildly and a blue bolt of energy lanced out and scorched a bit of cealing. The circular cutter arm swung about, nearly slicing Marcus but short by an inch.

Luc, now in position, though a bit spooked by the gunshot, brought his wrench down on the mechanical menace, barely hitting, but damaging the erratic robot.

[edit] Marcus can attack again before round 1 is overRolled init for Luc and it was bad. Sneak attack was successful, though blunted somewhat by the robots DR. 8 points total before DR. Round the next please. Robot is going at 5....

This robot was pissing Marcus off. He hated things that couldn't bleed, that were made out of a material that resisted his strikes- of course, armor in general was ok, as long as there was fleshy bits underneath for his axe to sink into.

But right now, this f**king cutter arm was what was annoying him the most.

Well, thought Marcus. If I can't hurt you, you shouldn't be able to hurt me, you little piece of mechanic s**t.

He slipped his shield off his arm, and raised his axe. He sliced down at the cutter arm, attempting to cut it off completely.

"F**king piece of metallic s**t..." Murmered Marcus as he kicked the things head.

"Well, at least since this thing's here actin' as giard dog there'll be good loot," he said as he sheathed his shield, and then began rummaging in his bag for a torch. Finding it, as well as means to light it, a cheery fire soon cast a warm light over the walls and objects. His eyes, as well as his hands, soon began looking around the room with interest.

Rectangular, 30'x10, with the doorway centered on the long dimension. Shelves on either side with boxes and many large plastic containers. Brooms and mops on one side, card-board boxes filled with glass tubes on the other.

The robot's blade appeared to be some sort of multitool. The other arms included cleaning heads and manipulator arms.

There was another door - much different then the one they entered - at the narrow end of the rightmost side of the room. It was a massive metal door, circular in nature with a hinge recessed into the floor. Some sort of control panel was mounted to the wall nearby. The centre of the door had the numbers '117' prominently emblazoned on them.

Carnegie started rummaging through the boxes and containers, looking for anything useful. She then attempted to disassemble the robot's arm trying to get the multi-tool loose. She wasn't all that interested in the door, knowing it would only lead to more trouble.